1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of telephone network and device testing. Specifically, the present invention relates to using a call control server to test a telephone network or device in an automated and integrated fashion.
2. Background and Related Art
The telephone has been one of the most pervasive inventions of the modem era. It is now common practice for an individual to use a telephone to audibly converse in real-time with another individual even if the caller and the callee are remotely located. Recently, the types of devices able to support telephonic communication have expanded well beyond what was conventionally thought of as a telephone. For example, digital telephones (hardwired and wireless), and some types of personal computers and Personal Digital Assistants are now able to engage in telephonic communication.
Conventionally, telephonic device manufacturers typically test their telephonic devices prior to distribution to be sure the telephonic device works as intended. In order to ensure the telephonic device works during normal use, it is desirable to test the telephonic device under a wide variety of possible conditions that the telephonic device is anticipated to experience during normal operation. However, normal operation of a telephonic device involves connection and communication with other telephonic devices. Thus, the telephonic device cannot be tested in isolation.
One way to test the operation of a telephonic device and associated telephonic network is to actually have the subject telephonic device communicate in various scenarios with other surrounding telephonic devices, and evaluate the performance of the subject telephonic device and network under the testing scenarios. While the variety of such scenarios are innumerable, such scenarios include, for example, receiving a ring generated by another telephonic device calling in, answering the telephone call and communicating between the devices, engaging in a conference call, or similar common telephonic activities.
According to one conventional method, an individual stations the other surrounding telephonic devices in order to provide the necessary input to those other telephonic devices in order to test the subject telephonic device. However, this requires that a human user take the effort to enter in the correct sequences of input at the correct times in order to provide the desired testing conditions for the subject telephonic device.
In order to remove the cost and unpredictability associated with using humans to station the surrounding telephonic devices, server technology has developed that allows a server to emulate the associated telephone network and surrounding telephonic devices. Servers that have this capability are often called “call control” servers.
Conventional call control servers allow a tester to dial into the call control server and instruct the call control server to perform certain telephone related actions. The instructions may be dispatched by first establishing a telephonic connection with one of the lines of the call control server. Then, the tester may dispatch the instructions by dialing the keypad of a conventional telephone with a particular audible tone sequence. Specifically, when the user enters a digit such as 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, * or # on the keypad, a distinct audible tone is asserted on the telephone connection. The call control server converts the frequency of each successive tone into its corresponding digit 0 through 9, * or #. Specifically, the tones are generated and interpreted using a known standard such as the Dual Tone Multi-Frequency. Then, the call control server may interpret the digits and implement the associated instruction. Thus, a tester may control a conventional call control servers via standard telephone voice lines.
While conventional call control servers are useful in eliminating the need for a person to station surrounding telephones during testing, the number of commands that may be implemented is fairly limited. This is due, in part, to the limited way in which a tester issues commands; namely, through DTMF tones. The dial tone command set associated with a particular call control server is typically not intuitive since the command set is limited to the digits 0 through 9, * and #. Since the command set is not intuitive, it is difficult for a human tester to remember a large number of commands. Accordingly, the amount of scenarios enabled by conventional call control servers is also relatively limited.
Methods also exist for issuing non-audible data commands to call control servers over a data line. However, these conventional methods are limited in the level of integration between the issuing of data commands over data lines, and the actual implementation of such commands on voice lines. For example, under conventional technology, one cannot issue a data command over a data line to command a call control server to establish a multi-line conference call over voice lines.
Therefore, what is desired are mechanisms for telephonic testing in which the call control server has more integrated data and voice features, and in which the tester may use a more intuitive command set thereby allowing for more testing scenarios.